A Filming Goal to the Halfway Mark

      I decided it would be a good idea to film on the 27th of November because it was a Saturday. This is obviously because my groupmates and I wouldn't have school, clubs, or after-school meetings that would interrupt or rush the filming process. While the idea was good at heart, it did not meet my fantasy expectation of a perfect filming area. What I did not consider was that it was the day after Black Friday, and we were filming at a mall; the issue spells itself out. It was extremely crowded but I was confident that I could meet my goal of filming the first 6 slides.

     The reason why I chose the mall is that it is commonplace for teenagers to hang out. This is fitting because all the characters in our pop music video are portraying teenagers. On top of that, it would have a ton of different shops and settings that could be used or considered. The first setting we chose was an uncrowded walkway near the back of the mall to escape all the post-Black Friday shoppers. Our second setting would be in the mall food court where many people weren't sitting.

     On this filming day, I would be mostly acting rather than filming because my character is present in most of the clips. I dressed in all black and chose creepy acting as I was portraying the emotion "Jealousy" as a person. This is important because I would be egging on the main character the entire time, making them more and more jealous of the popular side character. I chose unconventional ways of doing things to bring attention to the fact that I wasn't a regular person, but the embodiment of Jealousy. So, instead of walking beside the main character, I would walk behind directly behind her.

     My main purpose in the first three slides, or in the entirety of the first set, was to make the main character insecure of themselves. So, while we filmed those, I took on a bossy, passive-aggressive, and antagonizing persona. During the second set in the food court, I decided to be more conniving. At this point I believed the character knew they were having a profound effect on the main character, so this would make me seem eviler and an antagonist. After, we achieved our goal of filming half of the music video, and the last thing I did was make sure the clips hit the time marks we needed.

Storyboarding The Pop Music Video

Slide 1: This will be a forward tracking shot following an unpopular girl with insecure acting being followed by the human embodiment of "Jealousy" through a mall. The music will start playing instantly. At the end of the shot, the unpopular will look longingly past the camera

 Slide 2: This scene will be a shaky point of view shot of the unpopular girl looking at the popular girl and her friends having fun and laughing in the mall. As she looks closer, the camera will zoom in on just the popular girl and pan downwards to highlight her trendy clothing.

 Slide 3: In a two-shot that will pan between Jealousy and the unpopular girl, Jealousy will point out the unpopular girl's clothes and lack of style, first starting from her sweater then working down to her shoes. After, she'll act insecure, crossing her arms and looking to the floor.

Slide 4: A medium-long shot of jealously and the unpopular girl sitting together at a table looking across the room. 

Slide 5: It jump-cuts to POV shots, medium-long shots to where it shows the popular girl hanging out with friends and having fun with them to which unpopular girl is jealous of.

Slide 6: It jump-cuts to a medium close up shot of the unpopular girl sitting down, with obvious jealous and insecure acting

Slide 7: A close-up eye-level shot of the unpopular girl looking at a mirror but from a front-facing perspective looking at her insecurities  

Slide 8: A Medium long shot of the unpopular girl looking into the mirror's reflection from a back angle revealing the mirror to the viewers.

Slide 9: To which then we are shown a close-up eye level  which pans out and tilts to a dutch angle to show jealousy behind her stalking her and haunting her  

Slide 10: Using a low angle shot, we are showing the unpopular frantically playing with something with her hands, an action match shot shows that these are dolls representing her and the unpopular girl, informing the viewer that she has lost her mind

Slide 11: Then the audience sees the unpopular girl leaving mean and hurtful comments onto popular girl's posts using an over-the-shoulder shot looking into her phone, which jump cuts to an eye-level shot giving the viewer the look of satisfaction on her face.

Slide 12: The last shot is a birds-eye view of the unpopular girl laying down on the bed while the camera zooms into her face, showing her exhaustion caused by jealousy

 

Planning Out The Pop Music Video

 Props:

Our music video is simple when it comes to props. Our main props will be an iPhone, since it is critical for the storyline.

Costumes: 

Since each member will be in the video, each one will have their own costume according to their character. In regards to our main character, she will be wearing comfortable attire and simple shoes. Our next character who is the embodiment of jealousy will be wearing unnatural makeup with bright colored clothes that cover most of his body. Finally, the last character will be wearing a skirt, t-shirt, and jewelry.

Schedule:

11/15/21: Our group established props, costumes, makeup, and location

11/17/21: Our group will have finished our 12-slide storyboard 

11/27/21: Our group will have shot the first 6 slides of the music video 

12/4/21: Our group will have shot the last 6 slides of the music video 

12/9/21: Our group will have finished editing and final touches 

Location List: 

We are planning to shoot the majority of the film in a school-like setting. Here we will have our establishing shot, and characters introduced. Allowing for our storyline to be understood by the audience and flow better. Later, the scenes will be shot in our main character's room. Here it will help wrap up the story and give the audience an ending they can understand. 

Backup Plan: 

If our school setting does not work out, we will go to a forest area/park. It will allow the story to still make sense. If we can not film in our main character’s room, we switch to another one of our group member's houses. If a member is absent or unavailable, we will either film the scenes they are not in or begin the editing process. 

Research Blog: Pop Music Video Conventions

Our group is doing a pop song by Olivia Rodrigo, called “jealousy, jealousy.” The audience is told a story by the lyrics and the varying settings of the music video.  

Mis-En-Scene: 

• i. They wear costumes that coincide with their lyrics and setting, for example, a song that has a setting in school might be a school uniform or casual attire like a blouse and trousers. It can also be fancy, semi-formal, or flashy. A common feature in the majority of music videos is bright colors, darker colors are not seen as much. 

• ii.  Props include microphones and different instruments. They are meant as supporting components for the subject of the scene. If the song has an underlying tone or message, the props can be used as symbolism.  

• iii.  The lighting is typically colorful although when darker colors are used, they are for contrast to make the brighter colors pop. One determining factor for lighting is the mood of the song and setting.  

Sound: 

• i. Dialogue is placed in the intro of some music videos to introduce the concept or convey an opening.  

• ii. Background dialogue or non-diegetic sound may be placed in the ending of songs to conclude it.  

• On rare occasions, the dialogue will be placed within the song, stopping the music and lyrics entirely for what is usually a few seconds of dialogue, then continuing on with the music.  
   

Camera Angles, Movement, and Shots:                        

• i. ·The camera is focused on the artist or a subject. Some shots are seen in close-ups, wide-angle shots, and tracking shots where the subject of the video may be moving around a lot.  

• ii. Two- shots are used to establish relationships between two characters 

• Establishing shots show the general setting that the music video takes place in 

• The camera often pans to the character of interest of the main character 

Editing 

• i. The editing relies on the mood, story, and aesthetic of the music video. Although it is generally used to the beat using jump cuts, cross-cutting, and dissolving.   

• ii. Editing is often reliant on the mood of the video. A sad and melancholic music video will have more fade-ins/outs than a happy and upbeat one. 

• iii. Eyeline-matches often used to easily show the audience the point of view of the main character 

• iv. Action matches are used to add more diversity to a scene and make to show the effect of the character's action 

 

 

  

 

Music Video Group Vlog

      With this music video project, I'm becoming more open to working with a larger group of people. SO going into this, I decided that I would like to work with more than one person. This would be easy to do since there is a larger group of people to pick from for my group. I still don't want to jump to the highest amount of people possible though. I finally decided that three would be satisfactory and would still have plently of the benefits of having a smaller amount of people while letting me branch out to working with more people.

     I want to maximize as much time that I'll have with this project as possible; it feels like it will be a tight fit time wise. Due to this I want group mates that I'm already familiar with and know well enough to be comfortable with. I dont see the point taking time to know someone when there's plenty of people that I know already and that I'll work well with. I want to work with someone new in the future but as this project is on a tighter schedule, I think it's most wise to stick with the old. This project also requires to meet outside of school which someone new might have trouble with.

     The first person I instantly chose to work with for this group project was Mia. I worked with Mia for the last project so I am very obviously familiar with her and how she works. She works efficiently and is very concious about assignments and turning them in on time which is a vital quality I lack. So she is excellent for keeping everyone task and making sure we get everything we need to get done, done. I also am very familiar with Mia's schedule so I know when she would be available for filming.

     Finally for the last member of this group, I choose my good friend Sabrina. What I value most about Sabrina is what she can bring to the table creatively. Everytime I talk to her, I am amazed with the sheer amount of imaginative ideas that she's able to conjure up for media projects. She also has access to a car, so if anyone needed to get picked up for filming, she could use that facility to make it easier on us. Lastly, Sabrina has a look that could fit many roles that I need her to play in the music video; in short she is very versatile and can do anything.

Still The Same Old Me

  Hello to those reading, and welcome to my AICE Media Studies blog! For the sake of introduction, My name is Michael Smith, and my middle name is Ethan if that matters. I just turned 16 this month on November first. Since I was born after the start of the school year, I am a sophomore on a traditional American high school scale. If you're into astrology, my moon and sun signs are Scorpio placements and my rising/ascendant sign is Gemini. That states, I am an emotionally intense and independent person, which I would say isn't too far off from reality. In terms of the Gemini placement; I like to intermingle with people in different social circles, which I think is true!

     Now for my hobbies and interests? As of right now, I'd say the most prevalent thing in my life right now is a mock trial. That is because I am on the mock trial team at my school; we have a really good law program so it's an honor to be a part! So I would say the mock trial is the closest thing I have to a hobby right now; I do it more often than anything else. The competition from a couple moths ago went well, we're going to be competing in states soon. I'm not sure when were going to get started but I'd reckon it's soon. Other than mock-trial, I occasionally play video games, but not the ones you may expect of someone my age. I'm all for nostalgic and goofy games that aren't such a burden to play, so my favorite right now is "Animal Crossing Horizon." When summer comes around I do like to play "intense" games; they are usually horror games like the "Resident Evil" franchise.

     Lastly, I should explain why I decided to take this class; it's not very complicated. Although the film isn't my usual form of media, the process of capturing emotions with different angles and settings has always interested me. As far as TV/film goes, I really only watch anything by Mika Flannigan and "American Horror Story" avidly. Overall, I am mostly looking forward to conveying a message through media and seeing how creative I can get especially with this music video project. I am more than looking forward to participating in this class! 

CCR Blog

 Name: _Michael Smith_____________________

 

Creative Critical Reflection

1.      How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues?

Our product and commercial challenges conventions because it takes how masks are usually represented in media, especially commercials, and flips it on its head. Other mask commercials often use a heavy-bearing and sullen way of advertising masks. They often take the situations of those less fortunate, for example, those more susceptible to contracting and suffering health damages from illnesses, and using it as a means of ethos against the viewer. Our commercial represent the current coronavirus issue and makes wearing a mask more fun, lighthearted, and fashionable. Portraying wearing masks this way gives people two reasons to wear a mask during this pandemic; it saves lives, and it can be a new fashion accessory.
2. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text?

My product engages the audience with a fun and modern vibe and portrayal that everyone can get behind. Many are turned away from masks commercials because they are so emotionally intense and draining. In addition, masks are rarely advertised as a fashion accessory but rather as something that everyone should wear to prevent the spread of disease. While that is true, having another reason to wear masks would only bolster the number of people who would wear them. This new reason is why my commercial is engaging to the audience. In terms of media text distribution, magazines would be the most fitting medium. This is because magazines, more specifically fashion ones, are known for spreading the news about the most recent trends, our product could be one of them.

 

3.      How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

                             Beforehand, I had never tried my hand at production before,

so, my production skills got their first real test throughout this project. A valuable production skill I picked up on was to plan everything that you need to do throughout the day; this was the only reason why my commercial got done on time. Having a plan will result in less room for error, and rushing, so the overall product will come out better. I also gained confidence as I knew everything that I needed to do that day. In addition, I was able to get used to the editing process. Communication was also an essential skill throughout this production. Planning everything out is one thing, but communicating those details is what’s vital. This applies to plans, storyboarding, setting, the type of shot, and what is occurring in the shot.

4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware, and online – in this project?

First, I started with a simple laptop and search engine. I used this search engine to research mask commercials and their common themes and trends. After that, I looked into different types of camera angles, movements, and the mis en scenes that could be used throughout our commercial. When it came to filming the commercial, an iPhone 11 was used for every scene. When filming was said and done, I decided that I would use iMovie to edit the commercial, iMovie has several functions and features that were used throughout the commercial, most notably transitions and the slow/speed feature. Transitions, such as fade in and jump cut, were used between every clip, and on the clips that were too slow or fast, the slow/speed feature was used to get it to the right timing.